Defenses to Negligence

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Defenses to Negligence In 2000, an eleven year old by the name of Neal Peterson life would change drastically. Peterson a young skier who was a part of a family ski team and had being skiing since the age of two decided to perfect his skill after a race one day. While racing down the slope Peterson collided with a man by the name of David Donahue who was slowly skiing down the slope who was also an advanced skier. It wasn't until moments before the impact that Donahue noticed Peterson, leaving no time to react. Donahue immediately sought medical attention for Peterson after noticing he was motionless. Peterson was injured and later filed a suit against Donahue for negligence in 2005. The question asked today is which defense to a claim of negligence is Donahue most likely to assert based off of the facts? How is the court likely to apply that defense and rule on Peterson's claim and why? Before we can fully answer these questions let's look at what negligence is. Negligence according to Business Law Today is defined as the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar situations. In order to prove negligence one must be able to prove the following: 1. the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, 2. the defendant breached that duty, 3. the plaintiff suffered a legally recognizable injury, and 4. the defendant's breach caused the plaintiff's injury. In this case Donahue may argue that their was an assumption of risk while skiing. Both parties being advanced skiers knew that there was a chance of accidents and injuries occurring on the slopes. Donahue can prove that Peterson was well aware of the risk and voluntarily chose to ski. This would be an excellent defense because Assumption of Risk is normally used for such cases that involve activities such as skiing, skydiving,race car racing, etc. It also

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